Tuesday, October 13, 2009

WFMW: Cleaning Scorched Pans

A few months ago, when we were still adjusting to life with a preschooler and a newborn, I made a mistake. One I wasn't sure I could correct.

I scorched an entire saucepan full of white sauce. Scorched it badly, too - the layer of black on the bottom of the pan was nearly 1/4" thick in spots. (Aside: women who are caring for a newborn and a 3 year old, and running on very little sleep, should not attempt to multi-task when it comes to cooking.)

I soaked. I scrubbed. I soaked more. I Googled. I tried baking soda. Soaking with baking soda. Boiling the baking soda. Mixing the baking soda with vinegar and soaking. Boiling vinegar. All of those methods were successful - if you measure success a few molecules at a time.

I mentioned my problem to my mother, and she said, "Don't you have any oven cleaner?"

"Oven cleaner?" I replied. "I haven't bought oven cleaner in years and years, not since we got our first self-cleaning oven."

She suggested that I give it a try, and it worked WONDERS. Wonders, I tell you. I followed the directions on the can, and it took two applications, but the scorched-on food came right off. The saucepan has never looked better! I have since used the oven cleaner on some cookie sheets, and they look brand new!

I'm going to go digging under my sink. I think that I have a can of it under there somewhere. (We've since replaced the old oven.) I have a cookie sheet that fell victim to an apple pie and one pan that was scorched when I was simmering cinnamon sticks to make the house smell good. And to think, I've figured that they were both dead! Thank you for the tip! Makes perfect sense!